Bernard Durkan (Kildare North, Fine Gael)
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399. To ask the Minister for Employment Affairs and Social Protection the extent to which oral hearings in respect of appeals against disallowance for various payments are up to date; the number of oral hearing appeals that took place in 2023; how this compares with the past five years; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [8144/24]

Heather Humphreys (Cavan-Monaghan, Fine Gael)
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The Social Welfare Appeals Office is an Office of the Department of Social Protection which is responsible for determining appeals against decisions in relation to social welfare entitlements. Appeals Officers are independent in their decision making functions.

The Social Welfare Appeals Office has advised me that their schedule for oral hearings is currently up to date. Under the governing legislation the decision on whether or not to hold an oral hearing is at the discretion of the Appeals Officer to whom an appeal has been assigned. Oral hearings are held online, by telephone or in-person.

Due to the public health restrictions arising from the Covid-19 pandemic, in-person hearings were suspended from March 2020, were carried out from August to September 2020, suspended again and recommenced in February 2022. Since 2020 Appeals Officers have made greater use of telephone contact and correspondence to gather additional information or seek clarification which might otherwise have been ascertained in the course of an oral hearing. This has reduced the need to conduct oral hearings.

It is not possible to state how many appeal cases may require an oral hearing at any one time. However, for those appeals where it is identified that an oral hearing is required, a hearing can generally be arranged within approximately two weeks. The position in relation to the conducting of oral hearings is kept under review by the Chief Appeals Officer.

The table below shows a breakdown of oral hearings held for the years 2018 to 2023.